At first, it was unintentional — many of the staff came from open source backgrounds, and they wanted to run an egalitarian organization.

Eventually it became intentional and explicit. We're a primarily volunteer-based organization, however, a fraction of our work hours are paid for.

We realized that the way to encourage participation is to involve others in decision-making AS MUCH as possible. In retrospect, that seems obvious, however, most non-profit organizations still use the top-down model (ie. "here is your assignment, report back to me when you're finished"), and it took a little gumption to go a different route.